1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle motion control, and more particularly to vehicle motion control that is intended, for example, to inhibit erroneous learning in a learning process of an accelerator pedal fully-closed position and to improve reliability of vehicle motion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various apparatus have been proposed as this type of apparatus. An example of the apparatus is as follows as disclosed, for example, in JP-A-10-103090. It is provided with what is called a learning function of accelerator pedal opening. It stores output values of a sensor for detecting an opening of an accelerator pedal at the minimum position of the accelerator pedal, in other words, at the condition in which the accelerator pedal is not depressed. When an output value of the sensor is smaller than the most previous stored value by a predetermined constant and also that condition continues for a predetermined time, the output value is set as a new stored value corresponding to the minimum position of the accelerator pedal. Due to the provision of the learning function of accelerator pedal opening, appropriate vehicle motion control can be ensured even when the sensor output value corresponding to the minimum position of the accelerator pedal fluctuates.
However, even the learning function of the accelerator pedal opening such as described above is not perfect. For example, a possibility exists that the learning value may not be updated properly and the erroneous learning condition continues because of, for example, an operation failure or the like of a memory element as hardware in which the learning values are stored. In particular, the above-described conventional learning function does not have the function for whether or not the learning value is one that is learnt erroneously, and therefore, it may cause the following problem. Even when problems arise in fuel injection or the like because of the erroneous learning of the accelerator pedal opening, it is difficult to recognize that the cause of the problem is the erroneous learning of the accelerator pedal opening.